I was reading Nightmare's entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #8, the latest and most accurate account of Nightmare's history officially published in a Handbook that doesn't include the DK stuff.
Here's some notes I made while noticing their placements of events:
- Incredible Hulk #360 is put after Ghost Rider (Vol. 3) #11 despite being published before.
- Nightmare's encounter with Deathlok in DLOK2 9 and DLOK2 10 is put before the first meeting of the Fear Lords in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #31.
- Thor 451 and 452 are put before his encounter with Wolverine and Venom in MCP 117-122.
- Over The Edge #7 is put just after the Club Fear story arc even though it was published after Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #79.
- Marvel Knights 8-9 are put before the events of Magik.
- Defenders is put before Nightcrawler.
- Nightmare's encounter with Whistle Pig and Doc Samson in the second story of Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #5 was said to have occurred at some undisclosed point before the beginning of his invasion of Earth in Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #4. While the Handbook never said exactly when the encounter took place, certain continuity clues can give a good estimation. In Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #1, Doc Samson first encountered the Whistle Pig and was able to restrain him. He was then taken to Samson's New York headquarters to be healed, eventually becoming an ally of the Doctor, such as in Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #2. The Whistle Pig along with the Doc and a few others had traveled to Vegas by the start of Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #4, which led to their battle with Nightmare's demons during his invasion. With all this in mind, this encounter should take place sometime after Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #1 but before Doc Samson (Vol. 2) #4.
- Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and Doom all faced Nightmare together in Marvel Comics Presents 100. This event is specifically stated to have happened before Wolverine and Venom would face Nightmare in M/CP 117, who was attempting to merge his realm with reality at that time. Interestingly, the Handbook puts all the events in one place, specifically stating that Nightmare began to torment Wolverine with dreams in an attempt to merge reality with the Dream Dimension. This actually first occurred in M/CP 99, with Nightmare saying at the end of Wolverine's nightmare that this was just the beginning of his plan, which was later revealed in M/CP 117 to have been occurring for several times now, later revealed to be Nightmare attempting to merge his realm with reality. As such, I thought of that as meaning M/CP 99 took place after M/CP 100 for that specific story and before M/CP 117.